The Bone Curses, Life Exchanges

I stared at those comments, cold sweat streamed down my back.

Agnes was my childhood friend and later we even got into the same university. We had promised since we were kids that whoever got married first, the other would be the bridesmaid.

When we had children, even if they couldn't become childhood sweethearts, they'd be sworn siblings. How could she possibly want to harm me?

But the voice on that call just now really was Agnes's.

While I was staring blankly at my phone, my boyfriend Drew suddenly walked out of the kitchen with a bowl of soup.

He brought it to me and said gently, "Didn't you just say you were hungry and wanted a late-night snack? I saw you bought ribs, so I stewed them, come, drink it while it's hot!"

As he spoke, Drew scooped up a spoonful of the oily bone broth and brought it toward my mouth.

I looked at the two familiar ribs in the bowl, I was startled and instinctively pushed it away. The soup splashed out.

Drew's face changed instantly, "Selina, what's wrong with you? You nearly burned me."

Seeing the displeasure on his face, I quickly explained, "You know I can't drink meat soup without black pepper."

"There's no black pepper at home, how about you go buy some from the convenience store downstairs?" I didn't know why, but I vaguely felt something was off about Drew.

Usually, he wouldn't even cook instant noodles himself, he'd just order takeout. But now, so late at night, he actually made soup? That was way too suspicious. Could he be working with Agnes?

After heard me say that, Drew's expression eased a little and he was about to order a delivery.

I immediately pretended to be disappointed and clung to his arm, acted cute, "The store's just downstairs, you'll be back in ten minutes. If you order delivery, it'll take at least half an hour. The soup will get cold by then."

Seeing I wouldn't give in, Drew had no choice but to go out.

As soon as he was gone, I poured the steaming rib soup into a thermos and hid it.

Then I took out the leftover beef ribs from the fridge, carefully picked two small ones, added water and boiled them and poured it into the bowl Drew had used.

The two beef ribs were oily and shiny, almost identical to the ones Agnes sent me.

The store was just ten minutes away, but Drew came back in less than ten. He was panting and looked like he was in a hurry.

I pretended not to notice and took the pepper with a smile, sprinkled it into the soup.

While drinking, I recorded a video for Agnes, "Agnes, Drew helped me stew the ribs. I'm going to drink it now."

As I spoke, I had Drew hold the phone and I tilted my head back and drank the whole bowl clean. After finished, I even praised his cooking skills.

I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, but Drew seemed to visibly relax after I finished the soup.

Less than a minute after I sent the video to Agnes, she replied with a cute emoji.

Seeing she hadn't suspected anything and that Drew had also left, I finally felt at ease.

I quickly took the two bones out of the thermos. For some reason, after soaked in soup for several hours, their color had changed. One of them had even turned a bluish-gray, as if it had been cut from a long-dead corpse.

Suddenly, a bold idea came to my mind. Early the next morning, I took the thermos of bone soup to a pig farm in the suburbs.

The farm owner was a distant relative of mine, I used to play there a lot as a kid.

Inside the pen, a large old sow was lazily basking in the sun.